Texas Hold'em Rules

how to play texas hold'em poker

Texas Hold’em poker is by far the most popular poker variation played today, spanning online poker rooms, land-based poker rooms and every major live tournament across the globe. Using a standard 52-card deck, 2 to 10 players may take part in a single table of Texas Hold’em. Roughly 75% of all online poker players can be found at the Texas Hold'em tables. I tend to favor other games due to the simplicity of Hold'em. More complex games like 2-7 Triple Draw are much more profitable, provided you know the right strategies. Incase you are interested in learning some of these other games I have added some links to pages of our online poker guide that you will find useful below.

Object of Texas Hold’em

The objective in Hold'em Poker is really quite simple. As a hand of Texas Hold’em progresses, each player will have a total of 7 cards – 2 Hole Cards (face-down) and 5 Community Cards (face-up, used by every player) with which to make the highest ranking poker hand. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.

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Betting Structure of Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’em can be played in all limits – Fixed Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit. For this guide to how to play Texas Hold’em, we’ll be using a Fixed Limit betting structure.

Fixed Limit means that all bets and raises throughout each hand must be made equal to the low- or high-end stakes, depending on the betting round. For example, with stakes of $2/$4, the first two betting rounds (Pre-Flop and Flop) restrict all bets and raises to be equal to the low-end stakes of $2. For the last two betting rounds (Turn and River), bets and raises must be in increments of the high-end stakes, $4.

Texas Hold’em is played with forced Blind Bets – the Small Blind and the Big Blind. These bets, and all other betting options, are detailed below.

Small Blind: A forced bet placed by the player directly left of the dealer before any cards are dealt. The Small Blind is equal to 50% of the low-end stakes. ($2/$4 stakes = $1 Small Blind)

Big Blind: A forced bet placed by the player directly left of the Small Blind bettor (two seats left of the dealer), before any cards are dealt. The Big Blind is equal to the low-end stakes. ($2/$4 stakes = $2 Big Blind)

Check: To stay in the hand without placing a bet. A Check can only be made by a player when no other player has placed a wager in the current round of betting. Should another player bet after a player Checks, the player who Checked will need to at least Call the bet, or Fold.

Bet: The initial wager in a single round of betting is called the Bet.

Call: To match the current Bet by placing an equal amount of chips in the pot.

Raise: To wager more than the current bet. (Note: Fixed Limit betting rules allow up to 3 Raises per betting round.)

Fold: To surrender the current hand and any chips currently in the pot.

All-In: To bet all of your remaining chips. An All-In bet must be kept in a separate pile from the main pot because the bettor may not win a higher amount from any single player that is higher than his own All-In bet. In a Fixed Limit game, an All-In bet can only be made if the player has just enough, or not enough, chips to Call, Bet or Raise.

General Game Play of Texas Hold’em

In this example hand of Texas Hold’em, we will be using a Fixed Limit betting structure with stakes of $2/$4.

The Texas Hold’em hand begins with the Small Blind and Big Blind bets being placed. The dealer will then give each player two Hole Cards, dealt face-down. This begins the first round of betting, starting with the player left of the Big Blind. (Remember, all bets/raises must be equal to the low-end stakes of $2.)

This player must Call the Big Blind, Raise or Fold. Betting continues in this fashion until reaching the Small Blind Bettor, who may call the current bet by adding enough chips to his Small Blind, Raise or Fold. The Big Blind Bettor has already placed the first full bet, therefore may Check if no other player has Raised, ending the betting round. If another player has Raised, betting continues until all players have Called or Folded.

The Flop: Three Community Cards are dealt face-up to the center of the table. Community Cards are used by all players, combined with their own Hole Cards, to make the best hand. The second round of betting begins, same as the last, except that the player left of the dealer starts things off.

The Turn: A fourth Community Card is dealt, followed by another round of betting. From here on out, all bets/raises must be equal to the high-end stakes of $4.

The River: A final Community Card is dealt face-up, giving each player 7 cards with which to create the best possible poker hand. The last round of betting commences, same as the last.

The Showdown: If more than one player remains in the hand (everyone hasn’t Folded), the remaining players will go to a Showdown. Starting with the last person to bet, each player will reveal their best 5-card poker hand, using the 7 cards available to them. The highest ranking 5-card poker hand wins the pot.

If a tie occurs, the winners split the pot, (example: two players have a Jack-High Straight.)